Information Technology, Struggle to Improve

¶ … Information technology, struggle to improve the future of mankind and most importantly, it's role in it. This document will help in realizing the importance of driving more and more information under this specific knowledge area called it. From customer's point-of-view, it can be very difficult to initiate a system and handle all issues related to information with the help of technology, especially in case of a large cooperate business or organization. But once the system is established it will save a lot of resources and finance. This document will give an idea about the history of information technology with few critical developments made by beginners to make recent systems a reality and functional according to requirement of users from various fields. Then few extensions of available systems and the services availed by all types of user from a common man to the CEO or executives in multinational organizations. In the middle of it, this document will motivate to convert whole manual information in digital format. This can be a very critical point where customers are not willing to initiate a real world solution replacing his established manual system. Existing systems can be difficult to transform into digital form and this can be a real challenge for an it professional but he have to persuade the customers. Due to many reasons, which will be described later, it is very easy to build a system for new user than replacing an existing manual system. In the end the versatility of this latest knowledge area will be discussed with few arguments made by that part of society who still likes specialization and they claimed that it is not a specialized field or it professionals are just convenience providers. They are right to some extent as long as people are reluctant to change existing systems.

Review: Does it matter?

According to Nicholas Carr's definition of it, "I use it in what I believe is its commonly understood sense today, as denoting all Technology, both hardware and software, used to store, process, and transport information in digital form. It is important to stress that I am talking about the technology itself. The meaning of "IT" does not encompass the information that flows through the technology or the talent of or the people using the technology" ("Does it Matter," Carr 2004, p. xii).

With the passage of time, every field of knowledge is improved even if an artist says that he doesn't have to do anything with technology or his unconscious mind is creating all these rare and unique pieces of art or entertaining people with sweet sound created by his own vocal cords but he cannot deny the effect created by time and communication among people. When people from executives to common person came to see his art work and they started providing their feedback then it created a lot of data which is helpful for him in order to improve his performance. This will create some sort of competition in the market as well because now that artist has to compare his art with the products or artwork created by his competitors. Now think about the amount of data which should be handled properly. Otherwise no one can get the real and critical benefit from this data and customers are unable to get best value for their money. Let's suppose, there is no money involved but if this artist wants to communicate with his admirers and wants to discuss his new thoughts about a genuine beauty which no one can create or he wants to increase the amount of curiosity in their minds then he should have a forum where he can place all his work and concepts in proper format so that everyone who is interested in his knowledge area can access his knowledge and induce his own thoughts to improve the standards and creativity in artists mind. After getting their feedback he would also like to know that what should be the value of his master piece which is the most admired by the people. After setting it, he would also like to collect it through a secure and decent way.

Now artists can be the persons who can go against the usage of technology in their field due to many reasons but here everyone can sense that something is missing in whole situation. That is the word, System in order to get, store and process all raw data and convert that into information and extract some real fact to improve future performance. That system is actually information technology which will assist in gathering, storing, utilizing, distributing and showing the information through technology without even taking care of type, format or any characteristic evaluation of information itself. Software is available to write and edit music like a typewriter who is using word processor to write a letter. Musician can play back and listen to his creation if he attaches suitable hardware (UNESCO, 2002, p.104).

It does not mean that it professional will not consider all rules and regulation or business logic of his employer who is actually running the organization but it professional will consider them and give them their due place in his mind as well as in system which will be used in for the organization. He will also consider the customers of that organization for which he is working and give them due respect by thinking about them and providing them a share in his proposed or deployed system.

Few interesting terminologies in it

Most of the modern systems consist of either consumer and producer model or employer and employee model, they can be deployed in three layers structure in information technology. First one is presentation layer. This is the interface which user or customer will see on his computer screen, consists of text boxes, labels, headings, lists and buttons and it professional will be there to make it more and more interactive and easy to use. Human computer interaction is latest knowledge area in modern Information technology which is covering every walk of life. Just think about a user filling his contact information from his cell phone or iPhone into a form by using latest touch screen facility (Neonode Launches Force Pad -- a Touchscreen Platform for Mobile Internet and Computer Devices, 2010). That form was made by some it professional considering the information provided by both users and managers who will utilize that information to make their job a bit easier. This information is gathered by a survey controlled and conducted by the organization with the assistance of it professional (Jordi Cabot and Greg Wilson). Now after filling the form on his iPhone, user will be happy to see confirmation message otherwise he should get a formatted error message according to the organization's policy.

Second most important thing will be business logic to control customer's information and other things like access permissions, membership validation and other security issues on your newly developed system. Nicolas Carr mentioned, "In 1965, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis, less than 5% of the capital expenditures of American companies went to information technology. After the introduction of the personal computer in the early 1980s, that percentage rose to 15%. By the early 1990s, it had reached more than 30%, and by the end of the decade it had hit nearly 50%" ("Does it Matter," 2004). Now the thing is who will manage all this. Obviously an it professional because he knows about the technology but he will talk to manager and legal advisors of the organization to get all parameters that they want to implement in their newly developed system or have implemented in already established system. This layer is called business logic layer and does not have to do anything with customers of organization directly, but company manager will talk to legal advisor and discuss all issues then he will have a meeting with it manager and tell him each and every parameter which they want to implement in their system. This is a real challenge for both but it is successfully solved in Software engineering which is a developing branch of it (Bolton). In this, each and every detail is discussed in proper and decently documented way between it manager and organizational manager who acts as a correspondent of organization.